David Gardiner (Sirat)
David is one of UKAuthors old brigade, in both senses. Born 16th April 1947, a member of the site pretty well since time began. His screen name Sirat is a reference to what was his one and only novel at the time he joined, Sirat(2000), which is a sci fi story about the first emergence on earth of artificial consciousness, and the impact of the event on human society. A tag line was "How will humankind react to having a god for a neighbour?". Mostly though he is a short story writer with two collection in print, The Rainbow Man and Other Stories (2004) and The Other End of the Rainbow (2008). He has also written a second novel, Engineering Paradise (2012) based loosely on his teenage years in Belfast in the mid-1960s. Before the publication of this work David's murky origins in Belfast were shrouded in mystery. Only his accent was a dead give-away. Among David's other interests is helping to produce the twice yearly literary magazine Gold Dust, for which he is Prose Editor and Cover designer. In 209 he edited Solid Gold, the 'best of' short story anthology consisting of stories selected from the previous five years of Gold Dust magazine. David has helped with UKA Press in a number of capacities and has a fairly large back catalogue of stories on UKAuthors.com and a few more on his (large and rambling) personal home page at http://davidgardiner.net/. David has been the organiser of the annual UKAway holidays, which have faded out somewhat in recent years. You can find the discussion about the 2010 holiday going on here: http://ukauthors.com/phorum5/list.php?60 and the chapbooks that we publish after each event are all available for free download here: http://www.lulu.com/uk/golddustmagazine. He is has also been involved in the organisation of the annual UKAlive get-togethers in London. David lives in Walthamstow with partner Jean and (at present) two Filipino lodgers who have taken the place of his 30-year-old adopted daughter Cherelle, now living in Sydney with boyfriend (soon to be husband) Bryce. David's interests include science and science fiction, film, IT, philosophy, psychology, travel, SCUBA diving, photography, wildlife, DIY, cooking and contemporary folk music. Favourite books: The Four Million (O Henry), all the other works of O Henry, To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee), Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes), all the works of Kurt Vonnegut, Clifford Simak and A J Cronin, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark), The Last Picture Show (Larry McMurtry), The Illustrated Man (Ray Bradbury), Trainspotting (Irvine Welsh), all the works of Seán Ó Faoláin, Frank O'Connor and Liam O'Flaherty, Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck), Conjectures and Refutations (Karl Popper), The Open Society and its Enemies (Karl Popper), The Law of Freedom (Gerrard Winstanley), Walden (Henry David Thoreau). Favourite music: Janis Ian. Leonard Cohen, Dory Previn, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Emiliana Torrini, Suzanne Vega, Ralph McTell, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Don McLean, Leon Rossellson, Lily Brooke and Logana 13 on YouTube, Rick Hayter, Melanie Safka, Katie Melua, Luli Chouhy, Eva Cassidy and Allison Crowe. Favourite films: The Last Picture Show, The Godfather, Solaris (Russian version), Space Odyssey, Cinema Paradiso, The Citadel (1938), Sunset Boulevard, The Third Man, Citizen Kane, It Happened Here, The Pawnbroker, Music Box, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Son's Room, The Magdalene Sisters, Metropolis, Modern Times, Land and Freedom, Cabaret, Oh What a Lovely War, Torch Song Trilogy, Jesus Christ Superstar, Norma Jean, McCabe and Mrs Miller, Citizen Kane, Schindler's List, Paper Moon, City Lights, Limelight, Mother Night, Shadow Dancer, Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof.